What did you do in the Apiary today?

[user 6228]

I did consider sillica gel sacks but thought it would take a lot of them to make a difference. having said that is 21% too high?

ZZ

desicants:
you can buy silica gel in bulk. Alumina beads, molecular sieves, phoshorous pentoxide, fuming sulphric acid, rice, dry sugar, salt (not in honey) the bulk kind used for water softners

 

[Jimmy]

Read my words Jimmy, read my words.

Chris

Chris,
I inferred from your first comment that you thought UK agronomists were government agents.
I know of the UK environmental stewardship incentive schemes for farmers but not very much of the detail, so am unable to comment on how the UK encouragement of 'sustainable' farming practices compares to France.

 

[user 6228]

Just opened the entrance to hive nr 1 (poly wood hybrid) a bit. they were bearding and from the noise had the A/C on full. Their roof temp 38C. The A/C is now off and they've gone back in. Nr 2 (PU) is steady with floor temp at 21C (was 26 earlier this evening) and roof at 34C.

 

[Chris Luck]

Just a misunderstanding Jimmy from both sides, trouble with the written word and forums...

...basically I'm not a great fan of the "chemical solution" and even less a fan of companies dishing the stuff out through third parties to improve their image and promote their products.

Chris

 

[Tom Bick]

Managed to look at two hives giving me reason for concern, one has improved 100%, its amazing how things can change in a few weeks and the other holding its own but looking good with plenty of brood for their size.

Fitted insulated division boards and fed one.

Varroa drop reducing, considering a third tray as the bees and the queens seem to be undisturbed by it and I don’t use oa.

 

[AndyJThompson]

Whilst going through a colony, I decided to check through super frames some uncapped stores which will be left for winter feed. What do I find on first frame capped queen cell! Above the queen excluder so bees must have moved an egg how strange.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've had a few of those lately - no pupa inside just royal jelly, this year's queen laying well with plenty of room for brood and stores - maybe just the bee version of a phantom pregnancy!!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Topped up feeders on two and fed back some crystallised frames having dunked them in water - they seem interested. No idea how bad the wind is due to be here but strapped the hives down in case

 

[drstitson]

1. filled the smart car with 6 hives+ of gear at windsor - much to the amusement of the audience.

2. made up 2 temporary nucs to receive a couple of HM's BF queens.

3. removed super from 1 hive - the 6 fully drawn frames are now empty!

4. put 5 MM jumbo feeders in situ ready for HM syrup tomorrow - yet another use for the wonderful Lidl jam maker.

5. Used the method advised on here to inspect my real nasties (which are to be requeened asap) - moving hive and letting flyers use an empty one on original site. worked wonderfully - less problem than my others!!!! (and despite the gusty conditions!!!!)

6. was going to empty out the stragglers in a keiler which i left to it's own devices after removing a mated/laying queen - they went laying worker after a sorry attempt at a queen cell. wasps had got there first!!!!

 

[wondervet]

Took supers off hive by moors. 3 supers packed with heather honey. much more than was expecting. has this been an unusually good heather year?

 

[TBRNoTB]

Took supers off hive by moors. 3 supers packed with heather honey. much more than was expecting. has this been an unusually good heather year?

Treated both TBHs with Hivemakers Thymol mix on string and one 14x12 with the same on oasis. The other 14x12 has Apiguard on. Await to see what the drop is. All hives well strapped down.
TBRNoTB

 

[richardbees]

drstitson,

"5. Used the method advised on here to inspect my real nasties"

which particular method was this - as quite a few get posted?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

drstitson,

"5. Used the method advised on here to inspect my real nasties"

which particular method was this - as quite a few get posted?

Move hive 6 feet away from original spot and put emty hive in its place - flying bees go back to new hive in old position leaving a lot less bees to have a go at you when searching for the wicked queen

 

[drstitson]

move hive a couple of metres and let flying bees return to a new box on old site.

the "parent" hive were pussycats today - despite the weather - normally pinged and followed from the moment i approach.

(may also be partly due to adding a perforated Heinz BB can into my smoker to improve burn).

 

[richardbees]

Crackerjack!

Yes, I do remember reading that but it just hadn't registered.

Thank you, I'll definitely use that method next time...

 

[tonybloke]

found eggs and larvae in a colony that swarmed 3 weeks ago.

 

[tonybloke]

visited a friend who has taken up beekeeping this year. went through his 2 colonies and gave advice, started treating his colonies with apiguard.

 

[Mike a]

Back History
Between June - August I've had a lot of problems with two colonies, I ended up combining them and gave them two frames of eggs and finally I spotted a very small runty looking queen who had laid a very scattered pattern of drones and a small patch of worker capping's. So I suspect she had started to lay a small patch of eggs (worker) but soon after failed. I was just about to deal with the problem when I got stung and suffered a bad reaction and then the same again on my next visit which if I'm honest put me off visiting the apiary again for several weeks. Finally went back and expected to find a box of dead bees but instead I noticed another lovely looking queen. Obviously the runty queen had been successfully superseded and the new queen has had time to mate and started to lay.

But last week
I also spotted several things I wasn't happy about as I hadn't been monitoring their progress carefully, so I took some pictures as the light levels are poor due to over hanging tress making it difficult to see and inspect properly. As I went through the pictures I started to question myself as there has been a massive out break of EFB all thanks to one bee keeper (no names) but his gross lack of even basic hygiene and poor bee keeping skills has affected a lot of other bee keepers in the local area bordering two associations which has forced our regional bee inspectors a mountain of extra work.

Just to be safe I decided to contact my regional bee inspector and sent him several pictures and requested a visit if he thought it was required. Below is part of the email I sent along with 3 of the 6 pictures and some of my comments.

I can see four open cells with dead bees in them, some cell capping's have holes others have what look to be stains or discolouration which I don’t like the look of. I couldn't decide if I was seeing bald brood or simply the bees have died from being chilled.

The worker capping's look a much healthier colour, one egg clearly laid on the side of the cell which I'm not concerned about but the colour of the larvae in the cell I’ve ringed doesn't look to good. The other two cells ringed in green had workers emerging and not holes like the other cells.

The frame looked reasonably good to me until I got home, its clear the new queen has been laying recently as some of the eggs are still upright. However I couldn’t make out what was happening in the cell I’ve ringed in red. Its obviously been uncapped at some stage, possible chalk brood?.

He replied back to say I was spot on with my thoughts but thought a visit would be worth while as the apiary is within 5km's of at least two sites with known EFB out breaks. Today Fraser (RBI) rang me to ask if it would be ok to visit my apiary today, I jumped at the chance and met him at the apiary. He carefully inspected every colony on site and confirmed some of the issues I had pointed out. He also pointed out a couple of other issues but nothing serious but the best news is no EFB.

I learnt a lot from today and I would recommend if in doubt call in the experts and let them inspect your colonies and test them if required even if its just peace of mind and some friendly helpful advice.

 

[beeatshellards]

good you have been sensible, if only everyone had the same care we wouldnt have so many problems glad your bees were okay

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Went to the association apiary weather terrible and bees vicious - so much that when i arrived the early birds (including the secretary) were stood 200 yards up the road because the bees (before opening any hives) were B*$%ards.
Muggins her volunteered to check one hive - A really vicious bunch of harridans because (we assume) seven weeks or so ago the queen was removed into a nuc for one of our beginners as colony was building QC's like hell, so let's make the most of it and do a split.
a week or so later a plenty of QC's still present.
Two weeks ago in nice weather bees were still vicious no sign of brood, eggs or queen so we decided to put a test frame in (we had loads to spare so two inserted.
Today, bees still vicious (a wasp tried to mooch around for some honey - first time i've felt sorry for a wasp - or bits of one as it is now!) first test frame showed a prety poor emergency cell so the usual blurb was 'this proves no queen present,but QC pretty weak so let's try and source a new queen maybe' next frame brood in all stages! next frame a beautiful plump dark queen and loads of BIAS.
Moral of the story - even though you may assume by all the evidence you have no queen check all frames before you tell the beginners that a QC on a test frame is a definite positive indication . The new girl now marked and hopefully the colony will cool down in a few weeks -feel a bit daft meself though